DETECTIVES have been given a further 48 hours to question Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams over the IRA murder of Belfast mother-of-ten Jean McConville.

With the initial 48-hour deadline looming for officers to either charge or release Mr Adams after his arrest on Wednesday night, the PSNI successfully applied to a Belfast judge for an extension.

Mr Adams, 65, who vehemently denies allegations levelled by former republican colleagues that he ordered Mrs McConville's murder and secret burial in 1972, now faces a third night in custody in Antrim police station.

A PSNI spokesman said: "Detectives from Serious Crime Branch investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville in 1972 have been granted an extra 48 hours to interview a 65-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the investigation on Wednesday 30th April."

The Sinn Fein president's party colleague and Stormont deputy first minister Martin McGuinness denounced the police application as more evidence of what he has branded "political policing".

He claimed a "cabal" within the PSNI was behind the arrest, with the intent of damaging the peace process and inflicting political scars on Sinn Fein in the month of an election.

Mr McGuinness indicated that Sinn Fein would review its support for policing in Northern Ireland if Mr Adams is charged by detectives investigating the murder of Mrs McConville.

The deputy first minister said he and colleagues would not be making a "knee-jerk" decision, but suggested they would "reflect" on their endorsement of the PSNI if such a situation came to pass.

Mrs McConville was dragged screaming from her children in the Divis flats in west Belfast by a gang of up to 12 men and women.

She was interrogated, shot in the back of the head and then secretly buried - becoming one of the "Disappeared" victims of the Troubles.

Her body was not found until 2003 on a beach in Co Louth, 50 miles from her home.

Mr Adams, a former MP for West Belfast and now an elected representative for Co Louth in the Irish Dail, voluntarily presented himself for interview at Antrim PSNI station by prior arrangement with detectives.

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